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White privilege on a Red Line train
By adamg on Fri, 07/22/2016 - 9:30am
UPDATE: Statement by Transit Police.
Jamie Davenport reports on an incident Thursday night on a Red Line train ordered held at South Station until the police could clear a group of rowdy black teens off her car. She watched silently - until a cop ordered a black kid who wasn't part of the group off the train as well:
The boy says,
"I don't know them."
The police say,
"It's an order. Everyone in the group has to get off."
I collect my bags. The police looks at me and says,
"Not you. You're not in the group."
The police places his hand on the boys shoulder and guides him off the train. In a moment of temporary rage blindness I stand up and scream,
"He doesn't fucking know those kids."
The police looks at me and says,
"Is that true?"
To which I say,
"Yes, and it was true when he said it too."
The police release the boy and he sits down across from me again. We share a moment of blankness and then tears well in both of our eyes. He waves me over to the seat next to him. He says,
"That was because I am black. Wasn't it?"
I nod. He looks down sheepishly at his shirt and says quietly,
"I'm just happy they didn't hurt me. That would kill my mom. And she is not someone you want to mess with."
I say the only thing I can think,
"I'm so sorry."
He says,
"With all that's going on in the world I am so scared all the time."
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Comments
It's strange that she
It's strange that she includes this as an essay on her website as an example of her writing. It doesn't sound like a true story, but if it's creative fiction it's not very good either.
This one time
I was at a bar, and some guy next to me was getting rowdy. Next thing I know the bouncer was pushing BOTH of us out of the bar. I tried to tell the bouncer that I didn't know the rowdy drunk, but the bouncer ignored me.
Finally, a woman said "hey, he isn't with him" and the bouncer let me go.
I said to the woman, "It's because I'm white, isn't it?"
And we both had a good cry.
(Ok, those last 3 lines I made up. But I did get thrown out of a bar because I was standing next to an inebriated goofball. Doesn't mean the bouncer was a racist.)
Did you call the woman over?
And bond with her by saying "it's because I'm a drunk, right?" Then cry together?
Questions
1) What is the response by the MBTA Police
2) What does the cameras show
3) Are the transit police wearing body cameras
3) Release the Police report
4) Being loud is not against the law
5) Can the police kick you off a train or station after you paid your fare for being loud
6) If the police kick a child off a train for being loud and he or she gets attacked or raped are they liable
7) What happened to the other kids in this incident
8) If this is a standard operating procedure maybe Carmen Ortiz should initiate an investigation
Let me guess
You never take the southbound red line past Broadway.
Transit Police
Are investigating the incident.
As far as I know, they don't wear body cameras, any more than BPD currently does.
There are a lot of cameras in the area though....
I have a feeling this is going to get interesting.
The Timing Is Correct
I was on the platform. The "T" police rode with the rowdy group on another train to their destination. @DicDonohue Twitter TL reports that cops talked with kids & had a few laughs. It was a good #CommunityPolicing moment.
Ms. Davenport FB account states that when the "T" officer was on the train trying to take Jelani off that she stood "and in a moment of temporary rage blindness screamed". I was on the platform by the 2nd car. All doors were open. Plenty of us were watching. I heard no screaming. No raised voices.
I saw the group brought out to the platform. Then Jelani. The less than a minute later the "T" employee waved him back inside. That matches "T" statement more than Davenport's post.
Ugh. I just got outta work
Ugh. I just got outta work and decided to go out for drinks intead of reading 135 plus posts filled withconflict and anger. Keep it peaceful and luv 2 all. Stay safe this weekend.
Interview with the woman on the train
Boston Magazine talks to her.
I just want to see/hear any other witnesses
to what happened. A Red Line train at any hour is filled with young, alert, social media savvy people--I just want some kind of confirmation that it happened the way she said it did. I'm not calling BS but it'll be very strange if no one appears to back up her white-savior version of the aftermath. I don't doubt that the basic incident happened though like others I wonder what level of disturbance actually made T police order kids off a train--it happens so rarely. I have seen passengers and T officials shut down rowdy groups of kids--black and white--who were causing mayhem, one by gymnastics and screwing around with the doors (white jerks) the other by gymnastics and using such detailed and foul language (black jerks). With the second incident, the older black female driver came back and spoke to them like an angry grandma (and silenced them completely).
I Was On Platform
Davenport says she screamed at "T" police officer. All train doors were open and I heard no screaming. Therefore, I am skeptical of her account.
So not true
I don't believe that story for one second. I won't sit here and say there aren't some dickhead cops-- there are. Just like there are dickhead bankers, dickhead construction workers, dickhead janitors, dickhead professors, and yes, dickhead blog writers. We can just write things and they'll automatically get printed? No fact checking? This is why people hate the good cops, because of dickheads who don't have the facts but shoot their mouths or keyboards off.
And yet the police themselves acknowledge it happened
They have a different take on just what happened, but there's no denying that the incident did happen, unless you're calling Transit Police liars.
What I Saw From Platform
Matches official "T" statement more than Davenport post.
Not just white privilege
But privileged in general, I would say about the writer.
In the Boston mag article she notes that she's never feared police and always thought they'd help her.
Must be nice. I grew up (white) in Dot in the 80's and believe me we didn't trust the cops and wanted no interaction with them and certainly didn't see them as shining Knights.
BPD were usually decent but MSP and MDC cops (as well as Quincy and Milton) not so much. We were profiled by them just for being from Dot.
Don't get me wrong, I'm the first to admit that black kids have it much tougher than I did but writer seems pretty naive in general.
My gut instinct is that if the whole crew were white and the other kid was too the same situation would have unfolded and the cops would take word of the adult bystander more readily than the person meeting the description of the rowdy group's members.
Why is the writer so certain that the cops' actions were in fact b/c the kid(s) were black?
HOLLY CRAP 150+ COMMENTS AND
HOLLY CRAP 150+ COMMENTS AND A SECOND PAGE LOL
Davenport's Version Needs Grain Of Salt
I was on the platform during part of this incident. I was alongside the 2nd car after the police arrived, having moved up one car length to watch. Many on the platform were openly watching. Davenport claims to have screamed at the Transit Police. I heard no scream.
If one part of the post is untrue, why believe all her conjecture?
The cops hesitated to believe a kid until an adult confirmed. Davenport & others are assuming it was because it was she was white. But it's more likely it was because she was an adult just as the MBTA statement says.
Why do I believe that? Because of incidents I have either witnessed or been involved in where the cops and the kids were white.
I had to have adult vouch for me once
I (white kid at the time) paid my token and was entering turnstile when a blind gentleman exited at same time. I naturally backed out to let him thru and then slipped thru the turnstile, as it was now locked. Suddenly 2 T cops confronted me for evading the fare. I tried to explain what happened and they simply weren't listening to me or taking my word. Period. I wasn't going to pay again and agree to wrongdoing so this could have escalated. Adult stranger emerged to confirm my story and I was on my way, with no acknowledgement or apology.
I'll give the writer the benefit of the doubt that her BLM manifesto was based on the kid saying he was scared and not an indictment of the cops but on first glance it struck me as quite a bit too much.
As for the kid, I don't blame him for being scared. I'd be terrified of any police interaction as a young black male.
I'm not sure writer telling him that incident happened b/c he was black was true or at all helpful to him.
Kind adults should be helping kids negotiate and understand the world, not pushing their own agendas, which may have been the case here.
Anyways, good look to the young man and hopefully he'll learn the right lessons from the encounter.
I'm amazed the officers didn
I'm amazed the officers didn't take HER off the train, if she really did scream at them, defy their authority, and drop the f-bomb on a train that included children. I would never mouth off to an officer like that.
But I'm not a pretty young white lady, who thinks she can get away with that sort of behavior. Taken one way, the post's title's "white privilege" could be about the young lady herself and her discomfort with being able to get away with stuff with impunity, which she acknowledges in the full text of her post.
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